


Different Kinds of People

by EzzyDean



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angel!Takao, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:12:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyDean/pseuds/EzzyDean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Momoi and Riko meet Takao and they have very different reactions to his chosen method of arrival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Different Kinds of People

It had been a quiet two weeks at The Range - no disasters, tornadoes, freak lightning storms or mysteriously exploded cattle - and all in all she was bored.  How her partner could handle such tediousness and simplicity was beyond her.  A sigh filled the air as she scrolled through her laptop, checking the latest news reports.  Nothing exciting was going on at all.

“Riko.”  She drew out the other woman’s name in an impossibly long pout and the woman threw her a glare.  “I’m so bored.  What’s the point of me getting all this info if there’s never anyone to use it?”

“People do use it.  You just spent half the morning on the phone with one of your boys, didn’t you?”

“But, Riko.”

“I don’t have time to listen to you today, Momoi.  Be a good girl and watch the bar for me will ya?  I gotta pick up some stuff from town.”

“I’m not a pet nor your child.”  She muttered and huffed as the door slipped shut behind the flat brunette.  But she would do it anyway.  Because she did have a stake in this place and it wouldn’t do her any good for it to get robbed or burned down after all.  She shot off a couple email replies about some research she had been doing and was thankful for the third time today that they had managed to sweet talk their way into getting some high speed internet out here.  It had cost a pretty penny and a week of her going out on dates but they had done it.  

Trying hard not to watch the clock ticking down behind the bar her hands idly adjusted the flowers in the vase next to her computer.  Riko always said she hated the little touches Momoi added but since the other woman never took them down she kept doing it.  Some flowers here and there.  A couple nice soft songs on the jukebox.  Two or three bottles of halfway decent wine hidden away in the cellar.  It wasn’t like she was super stereotypically feminine but if she had to make a life for herself in the middle of nowhere she was determined to have a few things she enjoyed around her.  

Riko could keep her flat boyish lifestyle.  Momoi liked the occasional frill.

She sighed again and then sat up straight.  The whole world seemed to shift for a moment and she felt as much as heard a muffled ruffling behind her; almost as if someone had shook a heavy cloth.  An intense presence pushed against her back and her eyes went wide for a moment.  The breath in her chest caught and she slowly turned around on her stool, smoothing her skirt and feeling the knife she kept hidden against the outside of her thigh.  It wasn’t as efficient as a gun was, as Riko was always reminding her, but it was easier for her to carry around discreetly and she was comfortable with it.

A pair of silver-blue eyes met her own pink ones and she tilted her head slightly, fingers still resting over the blade.  There was something about those eyes that seemed unreal.  They didn’t give off any of the usual creepy shines that she was used to but they almost seemed to glow from within for a moment.  She knew she had never met this guy but something about his presence still came off as familiar, even as it wrapped around her tightly.  Even if he was more or less a stranger she didn’t really feel threatened.  

He grinned at her and pushed his hair back from his face.  If it was any longer it could almost be described as unruly.  But as it was the straight black strands just looked slightly messy.  Those eyes shifted from her and took in the room, barely resting on anything for more than a moment, before coming back to her.

“So this is where Shin gets his information from.”  She narrowed her eyes for a moment and then smiled back at him.

“Ah, you must be the annoying angel playing guardian for Shin.”  A frown crossed his face and she chuckled with an apologetic smile.  “His words, not mine.”  Never one to pass up an opportunity to secure some valuable information about any topic she spun back to her laptop and gestured towards the chair opposite hers, grinning.  “Take a seat.  I have a bunch of questions for you.”

* * *

 

The rain hadn’t stopped for three days and Riko was tired of it.  She was tired of a lot of things.  The guys never stopping in even when she knew they had jobs only a couple hours away.  Her partner constantly trying to “feminize” her and their bar.  Hunters who waltzed in and pretended they were better than her because they were men and hunters and she was just the lowly female barkeep.  The way the clock behind the bar kept losing time and the jukebox refused to play her favorite cd.  Yeah she was tired of alot of things.

When the clicking of Momoi’s laptop keys and the sad lyrics of whatever crap song was playing on the radio were dulled from her hearing by the thwump sound that reminded her of being hit in the head with a feather pillow she reacted on instinct.  The barrel of her shotgun was less than an inch from the nose of a startled looking silvery-blue eyed man standing behind her in a second.  His presence filled the air between them and tentatively surrounded her.  Like a curious child reaching out to an unknown creature.

“Um.”  An eyebrow raised as she studied him, not wavering her sight once even though he had to be at least half a foot taller than her.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Call me Takao.  I’m sorry if I startled you.”  Momoi’s typing came to a stop.  The stranger’s voice was kind and endearing and it felt very calming and that just irritated her today.

“You didn’t startle me.”

“So you have another reason for turning on me with a shotgun?”  He didn’t sound mad just curious and the image of a child looking at an unknown creature once again slipped into her mind.

“Yeah.  You popped up out of nowhere in the middle of my bar without a peep right behind me.  I wasn’t startled.  I just don’t take kindly to people sneaking up on me.”

“Believe me I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you.”  Brown eyes narrowed at his words and she stared at him not believing his pathetic answer.

“Taka!  Shin is in the corner.”  Momoi finally decided to speak up.  She was probably worried Riko would smack the guy in the face for good measure or something.  It was tempting, she thought as she watched him hurry over to the corner where the man in glasses was trying to hide his face surreptitiously behind his book.  Putting the shotgun on the bar she watched as the man sat down and started chatting animatedly with Shintaro.  Momoi had called him Taka so he must be that “guardian angel” that they had been discussing the other day.

“Momoi why are all the people you know such weirdos?”

“Everyone is a little weird, Riko.  I mean, you did just pull a shotgun on a complete stranger.”

“In our line of work when a complete stranger suddenly appears behind you, caution is a wise course of action.”  As she turned away from her pink haired partner she was pretty sure she heard the angel asking if it was customary for all humans to respond to first meetings with such promise of violence or if it was only Shin and those who were around him who were like that and she actually stifled a laugh.  From an outsider’s standpoint she supposed they were kind of a weird bunch.

 


End file.
